Woud this still be you?

Question

I read an article recently saying that in years to come there will be technology to cut up a deceased persons brain and scan it: effectively "downloading" the mind into the computer according to the article.

Now imagine a person named bob ok. He lives and he dies. They take his brain out of his head cut up and scan it to "download" his mind to the computer.

Would you still consider this thing in the machine to be bob? or just a copy that his experences in mind? and claims to be him? but the real bob died and all that his left is this computer that thinks its him.

The article insinuated that when your brain got scanned and made a replica of you in a computer that thing would be you yourself not a copy?

But does anyone else think that will merely be a replica? and not actually "you"?

Answer 1

A computer can not replace a human and personally, I wouldn't want my mind downloaded onto a computer.

Answer 2

it seems to me that it would be better to do this while the person's brain was still functioning rather than after it was dead.

but who would compare a real live person's life in all its complexity and interactions with sensory events, to something that is done already and sitting in a computer with no way to get anything new happening to it --

and believe the two things were even alike, let alone believing them to be the same.

past experiences from a dead brain are not much different than any memoir written in a book - and probably not as interesting if Bob OK was not an imaginative, creative person while he was alive.

what is important or interesting in dead Bob OK?

if he is interesting and if his brain could continue to live and change and move and do new things in the computer, then he could be "himself" and live on.

otherwise, he's history!



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Answer 3

These people do not understand the brain/mind. The brain is the biological organ which generates the electromagnetic field called the mind. Memories are not stored in cells. If that were the case, it would have already been discovered long ago. In Physics we know that energy does not disappear, so where does the mind go after death?

Answer 4

I think that depends on a lot of things.

Generally, I think it would be a copy, continuing from memory, and acting like you, but it wouldn't actually be you. It would be self aware, but it wouldn't be you. I think you would be smart enough to realize that you were a copy given the new environment.

Answer 5

Hey if I die and someone wants to listen to me great.